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Performing Regulation: Transcending Regulatory Ritualism in HIV Clinics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Carol A. Heimer  and
J. Lynn Gazley
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Abstract

Sociolegal scholars suggest that regulatory encounters often are occasions for displaying a surface compliance decoupled from day-to-day practice. Yet ethnographic data from five highly regulated HIV clinics show that regulatory encounters open opportunities both for ritualism and—surprisingly—for transcending ritualism. Using a theatrical analogy, we argue that improv performance is the technology that enables regulatory inspectors and clinic staff to transcend ritualism. As regulatory encounters unfold, clinics' carefully prepared performances sometimes change into more cooperative interactions where inspectors and regulatees hash out details about how rules will be applied and even work together on reports for the regulators' supervisors. By “performing together,” regulatory inspectors gain access to the clinic's backstage where they can assess clinic workers' deeper conformity to ethical and scientific norms. But such joint performances are less likely where cultural divides and material scarcity make it difficult for clinic staff to gain inspectors' trust.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 853 - 887
Copyright
© 2012 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

We are deeply grateful for thoughtful comments from current and previous editors of LSR, three anonymous reviewers, and our Northwestern colleagues, including especially Arthur Stinchcombe. The data for this article were collected for “Clinic-Level Law: The ‘Legalization’ of Medicine in AIDS Treatment and Research,” a project supported by the American Bar Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF SES – 0319560, PI Carol Heimer), and the Russell Sage Foundation.

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